An academic dean usually places the hood on a recipient of an honorary degree, Purdue said in a news release. In this case, Scott Tingle, another astronaut aboard the space station and a Purdue alumnus, placed the hood on Feustel’s shoulders — for reasons we can all understand.

Feustel called his doctor of science degree “a rare privilege” and said the school had “played and important, integral part in my life and my successes.”

“For me, after community college, there was no other choice but Purdue — the only university I applied to, hoping and now knowing that that decision would change my life and set me on a path to the stars,” he said Friday.